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Trust and the Independence of Ethics Enforcement
Monday, July 11th, 2011
Robert Wechsler
The way elected officials often think about government ethics
enforcement, it's almost as if they weren't being investigated and given
a hearing, but were being stoned. And in a certain sense, that is what
is happening.
According to an article in the New York Times last week, David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary theorist at the State University of New York at Binghamton, has noted that one of the biggest differences between us and our ancestor the chimpanzee is that, “Chimps are very smart, but their intelligence is predicated on distrust.”
The ability to trust our fellow humans is central to so much of what makes us human. It allows us to work together in a way chimpanzees do not. It also allows us to share information. And what is local government but working together and sharing information with our neighbors? That's why trust in the neighbors who manage our community is so important.
But trusting our neighbors also requires being able to keep our neighbors from taking advantage of our trust. Wilson notes that humans can throw much better than any other primate. "Once we could throw things at a distance, all of a sudden the alpha male is vulnerable to being dispatched with stones. Stoning might have been one of our first adaptations.”
Yes, throwing also helped us capture game, and keep away predators and outsiders. But it's nice to imagine that, long before pitchers pushed batters back off the plate, humans were focusing their beanballs on people who put their self-interest ahead of the community's interest.
Officials' skulls are safe these days, but too many officials try to keep control of the modern-day equivalent of stone-throwing. If we call it stone-throwing, as officials effectively do when they use the favored, but equally outdated, and inappropriate*, term "witch hunt," then it would become crystal clear that officials cannot be in charge of it, that it is something the community employs to keep its leaders in line. No one can throw a stone at anything but his foot.
* - The term "witch hunt" is inappropriate with respect to government ethics proceedings, because witch hunts were directed by community leaders against citizens, rather than by citizens against community leaders.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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According to an article in the New York Times last week, David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary theorist at the State University of New York at Binghamton, has noted that one of the biggest differences between us and our ancestor the chimpanzee is that, “Chimps are very smart, but their intelligence is predicated on distrust.”
The ability to trust our fellow humans is central to so much of what makes us human. It allows us to work together in a way chimpanzees do not. It also allows us to share information. And what is local government but working together and sharing information with our neighbors? That's why trust in the neighbors who manage our community is so important.
But trusting our neighbors also requires being able to keep our neighbors from taking advantage of our trust. Wilson notes that humans can throw much better than any other primate. "Once we could throw things at a distance, all of a sudden the alpha male is vulnerable to being dispatched with stones. Stoning might have been one of our first adaptations.”
Yes, throwing also helped us capture game, and keep away predators and outsiders. But it's nice to imagine that, long before pitchers pushed batters back off the plate, humans were focusing their beanballs on people who put their self-interest ahead of the community's interest.
Officials' skulls are safe these days, but too many officials try to keep control of the modern-day equivalent of stone-throwing. If we call it stone-throwing, as officials effectively do when they use the favored, but equally outdated, and inappropriate*, term "witch hunt," then it would become crystal clear that officials cannot be in charge of it, that it is something the community employs to keep its leaders in line. No one can throw a stone at anything but his foot.
* - The term "witch hunt" is inappropriate with respect to government ethics proceedings, because witch hunts were directed by community leaders against citizens, rather than by citizens against community leaders.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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